Ruby is a thief-in-training and a keeper of secrets--ones she doesn't even know herself. A Riddle in Ruby is the first book in a witty and fast-paced fantasy-adventure trilogy for fans for Jonathan Stroud, Septimus Heap, and The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates.

Ruby Teach, daughter of a smuggler and pirate, has been learning how to swindle and steal and pick the most complex locks for as long as she can remember. But a collision with aristocratic young lord Athen sends her spinning into chaos. Little did she know that her whole life has been spent in hiding from nefarious secret societies and the Royal Navy . . . who are both now on her trail. In this debut middle grade adventure, Kent Davis weaves a rip-roaring tale through an alternate colonial Philadelphia. A world where alchemy--that peculiar mix of magic and science--has fueled the industrial revolution. With this highly original setting, a cast of fully rounded characters and rapid-fire, funny dialogue, A Riddle in Ruby will call to mind fantasy greats like Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett.

"Ruby Teach is a thief. Well, a thief in training. And a pirate's daughter. A smuggler. A picklock. In a world ruled by alchemysts who mix magic and science, Ruby has always relied on nothing more mysterious than her skill and her sneakiness -- until she bungles the robbery of a young aristocratic lord. Now Ruby's father has been captured, and Ruby is fleeing deep into the city with the Royal Navy and the leaders of a notorious secret society hot on her heels. Because Ruby has a secret. One even she doesn't know. The world is filled with those who would help her, and those who would use her to their own dark ends. Can Ruby trust anyone? Can she even trust herself?" --Publisher's description.